Vance and I were talking at one of my coaching sessions during a break between songwriting work. I noticed a photo on his piano and asked after it. We got to talking and I said, ‘Our pictures are in boxes.’ “There’s a song there,” he said. That week I wrote one. For weeks after we honed the lyrics. The opening lines set the tone: “Our pictures are in boxes ‘neath the stairs by the door. I don’t know what they’re there for.” It was Country. I heard it with a steel guitar solo.

When I ran my songs by my producer, Crit Harmon, https://www.critharmon.com/ to determine which ones would make the album, he had this to say about two disparate songs. “This one (Pictures in Boxes), I like the lyrics; and further down the list – this one (Falling Behind), I like the music.”

Once past the initial shock that everything I create isn’t perfect in everyone’s eyes (or ears, as the case may be), revelation came to mind: I’ll combined the lyric from ‘Pictures in Boxes’ (adding the main motif lyric from the title of the other) and the music of ‘Falling Behind.’ It was a go. We recorded it with what’s called a ‘scratch vocal’. Sometimes you keep a scratch vocal if it’s good enough but typically you go back and record vocals over the band.

A few days before heading into the studio to record final vocals I got a rough mixed home recording in my email from Crit. He was singing ‘Boxes’ with a smoky, smooth, laissez-faire feel to it that gave the thing the irony it was calling for.